今年春天我们遇到了托马斯·邓南，材料实验室经理La Porte, Texas locationabout his new role, how he built his laboratory to include specialty sulfate and chloride soil testing and what it means to him to be an employee-owner.
How long have you been the La Porte Materials Lab Manager with Braun Intertec?
I’ve been here since May 2019. Before that I worked in materials labs in the La Porte area for almost five years.
What is your background?
I got a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Texas Tech University in 2011 and then I went on to get a master’s degree in chemistry from Baylor University in 2013. My focus was on inorganic chemistry—most of what I studied was what we call “main group chemistry”.
What attracted you to Braun Intertec in La Porte?
When I started talking toKevin Williams关于加入Braun Inte雷竞技好Newbee赞助商rtec，他为我提供了很多自由来建立La Porte实验室，并添加特种土壤测试能力，这些功能不仅是整个公司的其他布劳恩InterteC实验室，而且是德克萨斯州。
具体来说，他们希望我在土壤中的硫酸盐和氯化物的材料实验室中建立其化学测试能力，如粉煤灰等粉煤灰和水。获得这种自由度真的很令人兴奋。Kevin提供让我借此机会并与之运行，并在La Porte出发出硫酸盐和氯化物测试。
你对布劳恩Intertec文化有什么看法？雷竞技好Newbee赞助商
I like that everything feels like a collaborative effort. When I started at Braun Intertec I went to the Beaumont office, which already has a fully functioning materials lab, to learn about the Braun Intertec way of doing things because we hold ourselves to very high standards. Elaine DuBray, our Kansas City Materials Lab Operations Manager came down here to help as I was setting up, too. Even though we’re spread out across the country, the materials lab team has a meeting every week. It feels like a tightknit community within our materials lab testing group and I really like that.
How does safety play into the day-to-day operations of your lab?
Safety is a huge deal in our lab. There are a few pieces of equipment we deal with in our lab that could seriously injure you if you’re not careful, so we take safety very seriously.
我不想说安全是常规的，因为这似乎是你没有有意识地思考它 - 安全是你必须被一直认识到的东西。我们希望在实验室中确保没有出错，如果要发生任何事情，我们希望团队熟悉发布的安全程序，所以他们了解如何解决这种情况。
您最喜欢哪种类型的项目？
I really like the environmental treatability work we do down here. Here in Houston and on the Gulf Coast we have a lot of contaminated soil and we have a lot of clients who interact with that contaminated soil.
There are a lot of samples we get in the lab that are routine. Which is to say, the process to analyze these samples typically have the same steps—the results might vary but the process is the same. However, when you receive environmental treatability samples, it’s up to me, the client and Kevin to sit down and spread all the pieces of the puzzle out in front of us and decide: what do we want to do? What are the tools we have to stabilize this material? What is the stabilization criteria? It’s up to us to put those in place. Getting to sit down, figure out the puzzle and put the pieces back together is one of my favorite parts of my job.
What does it mean to you to be an employee-owner?
To me, being an employee-owner means there is an extra level of pride you take in your work. It’s not just the Braun Intertec name that’s going out on work because, as an employee-owner, you’re a part of the company and you feel a sense of ownership in the service you provide clients. It also gives you a shared feeling of success when things all come together.
您认为我们的客户应该了解La Porte的材料实验室队？
我希望客户知道，我们在布劳恩intertec的骄傲是我们提供前直的技术人员，科学家和工程师。雷竞技好Newbee赞助商我在这里工作的人是一天，一天的一群真正优秀的专业人士。这回到了成为员工所有者，但这些人 - 无论是在现场还是在办公室 - 在他们的工作中取得额外的自豪感。
我们的团队希望确保我们完成它。我想我们这样做。